Maryland Legal Aid Files Lawsuit Against Landlord in Washington County for Failure to Deliver Possession of Property, Retaliation, and Violating Consumer Protection Laws
On November 30, 2023, Maryland Legal Aid (MLA) filed a lawsuit against Aziz Properties, LLC and Malik Najeeb, alleging that the unlicensed landlord failed to deliver possession of a rental property as agreed, engaged in multiple acts of retaliation against Mr. Knight and Mrs. Rolle, and violated Maryland consumerA state or federal law designed to protect consumers against improperly described, damaged, faulty, and dangerous goods and services as well as from unfair trade and credit practices. Including Legal Issues like: bankruptcy, collections, garnishment and repossession. More protection laws. The lawsuit alleges that the consumerA state or federal law designed to protect consumers against improperly described, damaged, faulty, and dangerous goods and services as well as from unfair trade and credit practices. Including Legal Issues like: bankruptcy, collections, garnishment and repossession. More protection violations stem from the Defendants misleading Mr. Knight and Ms. Rolle regarding when the property would be ready for occupancy, failing to disclose dangerous and hazardous conditions in the property, failing to disclose that they did not have a license to rent the property, and seeking to collect rent that had already been paid.
To add to the already awful situation, when the tenants moved into the property over two weeks late, Mr. Knight and Ms. Rolle found property defects. They contacted the City’s Code Administrative Division, who inspected the property and found numerous housing code violations, including that the gas water heater in the home was installed incorrectly and vented inside the home. When the most serious violations were not remedied, the property was condemned, and the tenants were displaced a second time. Because of Defendants’ actions, MLA’s clients Mr. Knight, Ms. Rolle, and their two minor children were forced into homelessness twice and suffered severe anxiety and emotional distress.
Staff Attorney for Maryland Legal Aid’s Midwestern Office Jennifer E.S. Weil said, “Aziz Properties, LLC and Malik Najeeb violated a host of landlord-tenant and consumerA state or federal law designed to protect consumers against improperly described, damaged, faulty, and dangerous goods and services as well as from unfair trade and credit practices. Including Legal Issues like: bankruptcy, collections, garnishment and repossession. More protection laws in this case, and we have discovered that they own multiple other properties in Hagerstown, Maryland which have been condemned, leading to the displacement of other tenants.”
This is MLA’s third case against unlicensed landlords who retaliate against vulnerable people and violate Maryland’s consumer protection laws. MLA seeks to hold landlords accountable for complying with the law and to eradicate this widespread problem that too often leaves tenants living in substandard and horrific conditions.
Read the complaint here.
Contact Jennifer Lavella, Director of Marketing and Communications at jlavella@mdlab.org for more information or to request an interview.